In my quest to shed these extra pounds I have managed to pack on in recent times, I've done some serious diet and meal restructuring and the husband has already lost 12 lbs. Me? Not so much. And that drives me -nutz- because in years gone by, I had no trouble dropping the weight when I wanted to. And I WANT TO!!!.. While we are eating primarily Paleo foods (think hunter gatherer)... we do still consume some dairy but it's limited. I realized after talking to several friends that I am eating too much fruit (natural sugar) and that's slowing the weight loss down. One of the "snacks" recommended was nut butter..and I immediately thought Peanut butter, which I've loved all my life. But in the healthier foods sections of most stores and whole food markets you will also find nut butters I never paid attention to before... Almond, Pecan, Hazelnut, Cashew, Macadamia, etc. So I did some research in that department because damn, I need a healthy snack that won't pack on the pounds. A Healthy fat kind of snack.. you can bake with nut butters too, but I'm looking to eat a teaspoon of the stuff to tide me over now and then.
First let me show you something I could not believe.... It looks delicious at first glance...
Until you read the ingredients.
Ingredients: Sugar, Vegetable Oils (Rapeseed And Palm), Hazelnuts, Cocoa Process With
Alkali, Skim Milk, Whey Powder, Contains 2% Or Less of Sunflower
Lecithin, Natural Flavor. May Contain Almond, Cashew, Pistachio, Soybean and WHEAT INGREDIENTS
*if you have a wheat allergy or are trying to avoid it and gluten..
well that's a sneaky additive, isn't it.
When SUGAR is the first ingredient and you're not holding a bag of Domino Sugar in your hand? ... walk away. Holy cow.
Compare to Justins - which I bought...
| Ingredients...Dry roasted hazelnuts, dry roasted almonds, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa, organic cocoa butter, palm fruit oil*, vanilla, sea salt. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Now, there is still sugar in this product, although much much less... and you can buy raw nut butter with NO sugar at all, and even NO SALT... which is best... but it's a heck of a lot better than JIF. The other big difference? Jif is less than $4.00 for the jar.. whereas Justins was $14.00 for close to the same amount.
Ouch.
Ouch.
You know... it shouldn't cost MORE money to eat healthy... and it's often said that low income families tend to eat crap. Because it's affordable! All consumers should have better options.
Shame on the makers of JIF... now Smuckers Company bought from Procter and Gamble.. for making a NUT butter that's first ingredient is SUGAR. *sigh*
-Just Sayin
you're exactly right about it costs more to eat healthier - like those teas you posted about a few weeks back. twice as expensive (or more!) than the pesticide-riddled brands!
ReplyDeleteI like Justins. I also like Barney Butter. We used it early on when Pierce was younger (and we thought we needed to avoid peanut products for a few years because of family allergy history). It's from almonds.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look for Justins, Karen. I like the filling on one particular kind of cookie everyone requests...:)JP
ReplyDeleteWe eat a lot of peanut butter but we've always eaten Smucker's Natural peanut butter and now we've found Crazy Richard's! OH Karen! Look for some Crazy R.!!! It's amazing! Neither of these has any sugar and they cost more but they are SO worth it. The Crazy R has such a fresh flavor! (I like to grind my own peanuts at some stores, too) Hugs!
ReplyDeleteSo many people, though, eat way too much fast food (even that's expensive) and could probably afford to eat better for less. Everything is high these days. I don't eat like I should especially when it's just me around here. I tend to cook more when the girl is here.
ReplyDeleteYou'll probably begin to lose more once springtime arrives, and you'll be working on your flower gardens and such.
Karen-it is really easy to make your own nut butter if you have a blender. Here is just one link but I know there must be a ton of them out there! You will save a LOT Of $$$$. xo Diana
ReplyDeletehttp://www.greenthickies.com/how-to-make-peanut-butter/
we are also primarily paleo with atkins mixed in….and like you…holy crap! why does it have to be so expensive?
ReplyDeletei love the nut butters but often feel so sad as to what i can eat it on, as i want a cracker or toast :(
apple slices work though :)
we still have fruit smoothies but we have to or we'd expire. we look forward to them and add kale, sweet potato puree and almond cinnamon butter and almond milk to them….YUM
john has lost a lot of weight…but i'm not even trying to…..and overall feel better :)
How about just a handful of nuts? No? I eat way too much sugar and really must do a better job of checking labels.
ReplyDeleteGotta have some sugar when working with chocolate, but having it as the first ingredient is not acceptable.
ReplyDeleteWhen our daughter was training for bodybuilding competitions, I found that most of her diet was lean protein, complex carbs (oats, etc.) and vegetables were the plant itself (like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower).
My sister in law has lost 60 pounds in the last 14 months. She did this by eliminating sugar and 'white' foods ... white bread, potatoes, rice, pasta. A cocktail for her now is unsweetened iced tea with a shot of flavored vodka in it.
As a healthy snack, I've been enjoying almond nut butter with apple slices. It only has 3g of sugar per 2 Tbsp. which works for me. I use MaraNantha no-stir.
ReplyDeleteIt not only takes money to heat more healthfully, it takes time...time to check the labels. I'm carrying around a list of Monsanto owned companies because I also refuse to buy GMO.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that it costs more to eat healthy and it is also very time consuming to always be checking labels, at least until you find something you like and continue to buy it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I just went and checked my Nutella and guess what? Yep, sugar is the first ingredient! Crap!
When I need a healthy snack I grab a glass full of grapes...
ReplyDelete:)
Ha Stephen! I'm having a healthy of grapes myself right now! loll
ReplyDeleteKaren - just so you know, and not that you are keeping entirely paleo, but peanuts are not considered nuts. They are a legume. :(
I've bought sunflower seed butter. It's really delicious and no added sugar! I like a spoonful to tide me over just as you described.
As for weight loss? I'm screaming every day because I'm such a fatty-patty! I'm older than you and it's even harder! grrrrr
Good luck girl!
I learned going to Weight Watchers a million years ago, that sugar is usually the first ingredient and to avoid those. It is to bad that to eat healthy costs so much more. I looked at peanut butter ingredients and quit buying anything but all natural.
ReplyDelete